Academy of Tejano Music Drops 2026 Lineup with Lifetime Honorees

The Academy of Tejano Music announced its sixth annual Premios Tejano Mundial ceremony will take place February 5, 2026, at San Antonio's Shrine Auditorium.

The red carpet will showcase a lineup of Tejano stars competing for honors across six categories, along with lifetime achievement awards and performances from established and emerging artists.

The performer roster includes Conjunto Cats, Los Arcos Hermanos Peña, Elijah Ezequiel, Bianca Ruiz, Luis AG, and Los Heartbreakers. Tickets became available through Tejano Tix's website, though the academy chose not to disclose pricing in its February 29 announcement.

Final five nominees span six categories. Bobby Pulido, Elida Reyna, Jesse Turner, Ricardo Castillon, and Stefanie Montiel compete for Entertainer of the Year. The New Artist category features Conjunto Distinto, Grupo Cinco F's, La Reina, Lila, and Salome Lopez.

Group/Duo of the Year nominees include Asalto, Conjunto Cats, David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, Intocable, and Siggno. AJ Castillo, Conjunto Cats, Jenny B, Jesse Turner, and Monica Saldivar round out the Social Media Artist category.

Collaboration of the Year recognizes five tracks: David Lee Garza y Los Musicales featuring Pete Astudillo on "Haces Falta Tu," Gary Hobbs featuring Juan Treviño on "Acaso No Te Das Cuenta," Jai Sterline featuring Elijah Ezequiel on "Loco," La 45 featuring Ruben Ramos on "Popurri Del Leon # 1," and Miguel Hernandez featuring Jai Sterline on "Cumbia Sensual."

The Song of the Year category, designated as "Homenaje" or tribute, includes Los Arcos Hermanos Peña's "Charangueando," Ray Ray Garcia's "Como Una Vision," Adalberto featuring Jay Perez's "El Cisne," Texas Highway 281's "Poquito A Poco," and Conjunto Cats' "Suavecito."

Conjunto Cats appears across multiple categories, earning three separate nominations. The group secured spots in Group/Duo of the Year, Social Media Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year. Jesse Turner landed three nominations spanning Entertainer of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and Social Media Artist of the Year.

The academy referenced a complete nominee list available on the Tejano Mundial website but provided only these final five selections in each category for its press release. The organization continues accepting 2026 membership applications and renewals through its website.

Founded in 2020, the Academy of Tejano Music operates as a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and advancing Tejano music across generations. The organization has donated instruments to schools, including Southside High School's Conjunto Cardenales program. Despite its youth, the academy has positioned itself as Tejano music's primary recognition body, functioning as the genre's equivalent to the Grammys.

San Antonio hosts the ceremony for the sixth consecutive year. The event will be held at the Shrine Auditorium after five previous iterations established the awards show as an annual fixture in Tejano music's calendar.

The lifetime achievement selections honor figures who built Tejano music's institutional framework outside major label systems. Freddie Martinez Sr. launched Freddie Records when distribution channels for regional Mexican music remained limited in Texas. Roger Hernandez created the Totally Tejano Museum to document a genre's history that conventional archives ignored.

Martinez launched Freddie Records in 1970 when regional Mexican music distribution barely existed in Texas. Hernandez built the Totally Tejano Museum because conventional archives treated the genre like it didn't matter. Both men created infrastructure that major labels and cultural institutions refused to provide. The academy honors them while corporate entertainment still files Tejano under niche programming, despite consistent ticket sales and multi-generational audiences.

Tejano music emerged from South Texas border communities where Mexican corridos merged with European polka rhythms brought by German and Czech immigrants. The accordion became the genre's signature instrument in the early 20th century, defining the conjunto sound that working-class Tejanos claimed as their own. By the 1950s, artists like Isidro Lopez started mixing Spanish lyrics with Tex-Mex slang, creating a distinctly regional identity that major record labels ignored for decades. Freddie Records became one of the few outlets for Tejano artists when mainstream distribution networks refused to carry regional Mexican music. The genre reached commercial peaks in the 1990s with artists like Selena and Emilio Navaira, but infrastructure remained largely independent.

Tejano music in 2026 sustains itself through regional loyalty and consistent live performance rather than algorithmic playlisting, functioning as a parallel industry that major entertainment corporations still treat as niche programming despite steady audience engagement. Award shows like Premios Tejano Mundial give Tejano artists a stage that still belongs to them and only them.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.

All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Sharing the original posts or links from FRONTeras on social media is allowed and appreciated.